Thursday, September 04, 2008

Signifying Nothing

Rather than descend into the negativity that I feel calling me (thank you Twins' Bullpen), I'm going to put off my "season preview" post. And for snapping me out of my funk, I have Gene Wojciechowski of ESPN.com to thank. And by thank, I mean needlessly nitpick to make myself feel better.

And now, to explain that segue, let's take a quick peek at Wojciechowski's season preview, where he picked the Vikings to finish second in the NFC North. I don't really have a problem with that pick. What I do have a problem with is this comment:

"Tarvaris Jackson needs to do four things: stay healthy, figure out a way to complete more than 58 percent of his passes, throw more than nine touchdowns and quit fumbling so much. If he does, then hello playoffs."

Ok. Let's break that his advice to Tarvaris down--"Stay Healthy". That one's fine. Tarvaris' health is probably my biggest concern this year (thank you Brad Childress for signing a real backup...oh wait). "Figure out a way to complete more than 58% of his passes". Again, this advice is fine. I think replacing Troy Williamson with Bernard Berrian will certainly help with this, as will the continued improvement of Sidney Rice. And Tarvaris' did complete 68.3% of his passes this preseason, which bodes well for his ability to improve on his completion percentage. It should also help him "throw more than nine touchdowns" as well.

And now we come to the problem with this comment. Tarvaris Jackson is not Daunte Culpepper. He does not have a problem with fumbling. While he did fumble five times last year, that total didn't even crack the top twenty, and was less than pretty much every quarterback that saw significant playing time. So yeah, I don't think that's really something Tarvaris really needs to improve upon. If, by fumbling, he meant "throwing interceptions and jump passes", then I'll agree with him. If not, well, then no, Tarvaris' fumbles aren't likely to keep the Vikings out of the playoffs.

And yes, I realize this was a complete waste of time and effort. But you know what? It did make me feel better.